{"id":974,"date":"2009-03-27T14:02:03","date_gmt":"2009-03-27T18:02:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=974"},"modified":"2009-04-30T19:26:46","modified_gmt":"2009-04-30T23:26:46","slug":"evolution-is-a-scientific-fact-%e2%80%93-except-perhaps-in-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=974","title":{"rendered":"Evolution is a scientific fact \u00e2\u20ac\u201c except, perhaps, in Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Imagine that your state legislature has decided to revamp the way that health and medicine are taught in the Florida public schools system. To do this, they must tackle the “germ theory of disease<\/span><\/a>“, the idea that infectious disease is caused by microorganisms such as viruses and bacteria. The legislature, noting that this idea has many vocal opponents, declares that it is “only a theory”. Many people, for instance, think that Aids has nothing to do with viruses, but is the byproduct of a dissipated life. In light of this “controversy”, the legislature sets up a school board that includes not only doctors, but also shamans, faith healers and, for good measure a few “psychic surgeons”.<\/p>\n

You would rightly be furious if all this happened. After all, the “germ theory” of disease is more than just a theory \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it’s a fact. \u00c2\u00a0<\/em>BUT, this is precisely what is happening in Texas with respect to another well-established theory of biology: evolution<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Read the rest of Jerry Coyne great article\u00c2\u00a0in the Guardian CO\u00c2\u00a0UK<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Imagine that your state legislature has decided to revamp the way that health and medicine are taught in the Florida public schools system. To do this, they must tackle the “germ theory of disease“, the idea that infectious disease is … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-fI","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3027,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3027","url_meta":{"origin":974,"position":0},"title":"Following up on Nassau County shenanigans","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"December 21, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I told you about the interesting conversation about evolution at a recent Nassau County School Board meeting a few days ago (Meanwhile, in Nassau County: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I thought evolution was a bunch of baloney\u00e2\u20ac\u009d). Now, the local weekly newspaper published a story about it: Science Education Discussed at NCSB. Unfortunately, it's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Textbooks"","block_context":{"text":"Textbooks","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=26"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1273,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1273","url_meta":{"origin":974,"position":1},"title":"Newspapers: Antievolution bill is bad idea","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 18, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The Orlando Sentinel has published an editorial opposing Sen. Wise's \"non-evolution\" \"theory of whatever\": Among scientists, the idea of teaching \"nonevolution\" in public schools would be dismissed as nonsense. But in Tallahassee, just such a bill sponsored by Rep. Stephen Wise has its supporters. This is, after all, a state\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "\"Critical Analysis\" bills '11"","block_context":{"text":"\"Critical Analysis\" bills '11","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=29"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1534,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1534","url_meta":{"origin":974,"position":2},"title":"Miami Herald’s Fred Grimm takes on “monkey bills”","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"May 1, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Fred Grimm over at the Miami Herald has a column published entitled \"Fighting evolution one monkey law at a time.\" Model bills bounce around from one whacked-out legislature to another. If evolution went down in Tennessee in 2012, you can pretty well figure that the Florida Legislature will be rethinking\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":191,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=191","url_meta":{"origin":974,"position":3},"title":"Another poll","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"April 7, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Yet another poll, this most recent one by Newsweek, shows a lack of support\/understanding for real-life, established science. Questions 12 and 13 ask the tired old questions of evolution. Personally, I'm tired of these polls as they don't tell us anything we haven't been told over and over again before.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Analysis\/Commentary"","block_context":{"text":"Analysis\/Commentary","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=4"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":481,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=481","url_meta":{"origin":974,"position":4},"title":"Still here","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 25, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I just wanted to write a quick post saying I'm still around. Florida Citizens for Science activities swamped me the past month or so, taking away from other work, family and college responsibilities. So, I am now taking a short time out from FCS to catch up on everything else\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "In the News"","block_context":{"text":"In the News","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":443,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=443","url_meta":{"origin":974,"position":5},"title":"News roundup","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 15, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The St. Petersburg Times has an editorial up supporting evolution in the state science standards. On Tuesday, the state Board of Education will vote on new science standards that finally insist that Florida's students receive comprehensive biology instruction that includes evolution as its underlying concept. It is an economic imperative\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Our Science Standards"","block_context":{"text":"Our Science Standards","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/974"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/974\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}